Mcmahon's Shoulders Too Weak To Carry Bears?

August 30, 1987|By Bryan Burwell, New York Daily News

LAKE FOREST, ILL. — It is a raw, miserable, rain-soaked afternoon, the kind that could water- log a man clear to the bone. Four Chicago Bears quarterbacks work in tandem going through passing drills, mirror-image pairs slogging through routine after repetitious routine.

First pair: Jim McMahon and Doug Flutie. Second pair: Mike Tomczak and rookie Jim Harbaugh. Pass left. Pass right. Three steps. Five steps. Seven steps. The water oozes from under their feet on the practice field.

In the distance stands Mike Ditka, dressed in a dark blue wet suit. The quarterbacks know he is watching. He always is watching. The man who might lead the Bears back to the Super Bowl -- and more immediately, the man who will lead them against the Giants in the prime-time, season opener on Sept. 14 -- will emerge from these daily auditions.

Today, the competition has been narrowed a bit. Ditka doesn't like what he sees from McMahon, the non-conformist hero of Super Bowl XX, who is recovering from surgery on a torn rotator cuff in his right shoulder last December. The ball doesn't cut through the rain with any zip.

Nine months after reconstructive surgery, McMahon's recovery timetable has received a major setback. Less than three weeks before the season opener, his arm still is not fit enough to start Monday night's preseason game against St. Louis. That means he probably won't start the final pre-season game vs. the Raiders, either. And in Ditka's mind, if McMahon can't start in those games, he won't start against the Giants.

There's a very real possibility that McMahon could end up on injured reserve for the first four to six weeks of the regular season if his shoulder continues to show slow progress.

''If he throws good before the end of the week, fine,'' said Ditka following Tuesday's practice. ''But it would have to be a significant improvement over today. He threw it, but not with enough velocity to play in the National Football League. He knows it. I know it. Anyone out watching knew it. It's not a secret. He threw decently at times, but when it came time to really put the soup on it and get it there, he couldn't do that. A lot might be the waterlogged footballs and the conditions. But as of right now, we would go with the kids we have.''

As of today, Ditka is preparing to go with Tomczak as his starter.

''Anyone with two eyes would have to see we would go with Mike,'' Ditka said. ''The kid would have to do a complete flip-flop and go completely backwards not to be the starting quarterback if McMahon wasn't healthy.''